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On March 26th I leave my job, move out of my flat in London and head off to Nepal to do some volunteer community work with the charity Restless Development. I’m still not sure exactly what I’ll be doing, but I know it will be working with young people on the issue of sexual health. With only just over 2 weeks left to go I thought I’d get my act together and start a blog rolling so I can keep everyone updated on what I’m up to.

Here’s a quick round up of what’s happened so far:

Pre-departure training: A few weekends ago the prospective Nepal volunteers all got to meet up together for a weekend pre-departure training in Birmingham. After a long week at work there was no relaxing weekend to be had, but it was pretty awesome – great fun meeting all the guys and learning more about ICS (the scheme funding my placement), Restless Development, and touching on what was in-store for us in Nepal. The days were intense but amazing fun and I was so pleased after discovering the great bunch of people I will be sharing this experience with. On the train back to London on Sunday it finally dawned on me what was ahead – I was going to be thrown in a whole different culture, it was going to be warm and there would be curry for breakfast. Very excite’.

Fundraising and Live Below the Line: Though my placement is all funded, there is a fundraising element involved which meant I would have to raise £800, all of which goes directly to the charity. I wasn’t really comfortable with the whole asking people for money thing, but I’ve learnt not to underestimate the generosity of all the people I know. My total will be collected tomorrow (Sunday 11th) and I’m currently at 203% of my target – that’s over £1600! I have to admit that this colossal accumulation is much to do with all the great people I know, but one thing I did to encourage sponsors was the Live Below the Line challenge. This involved living on £1 food and drink each day for 5 days. It was tough. Food has never tasted nicer since though, and now I appreciate the little things more, like butter on bread and a tea bag, milk and sugar in my water. I kept a little journal each day so might stick this into a full post soon.

Jabs, visas, kit and the like: I’m currently 7 immunisations down and only 2 left to go. My visa has been acquired following three trips to the embassy (conveniently located just a 10 minute walk away from my work) and after a productive weekend shopping I have most of the big players on the kit list sorted. I currently have my feet up after trying to break my hiking shoes in today. Last big hurdle is to get someone to take over the rent on my flat which hasn’t proved too fruitful a pursuit thus far. Fingers crossed.

So that’s the journey so far, if you read all of that then thanks for persevering. Posts should get much more interesting, and be accompanied by nice photos so there’s something to look forward to eh.